Sophia Charlotte of Hanover

Sophie Charlotte Duchess of Brunswick and Lüneburg ( colloquially " Hanover " ) ( born October 30, 1668 Iburg, † February 1, 1705 in Hannover) was the only daughter of Sophie of the Palatinate and the later Elector Duke Ernst August of Brunswick and Lüneburg. In 1701 she was crowned by her husband to the first Queen of Prussia. She spoke fluent French, English and Italian and nursed her mother a close friendship with Leibniz.

Life

Sophie Charlotte was born in Iburg castle, where her birth room still exists today. Your first five years were spent with his parents in the provincial life of Iburger castle before the prince-bishop's family in 1673, the newly built residence in Osnabrück, Osnabrück, the castle, referring, where in 1674 her brother Ernst August II was born in Hanover. She was the only daughter of the prince bishop pair and had three older and three younger brothers. The prince-bishop of Osnabrück family left and moved to Hanover after her uncle was Johann Friedrich died in 1679 and her father accepted his succession in the Principality of Calenberg.

Sophie Charlotte was brought up Protestant, but included power-political considerations of her parents marriage with a Catholic not matter what their upbringing took into consideration. With her mother she went on a trip to France, where they allegedly pursued her interest in garden design. Main interest of the trip was the possible prospect of Sophie Charlotte at a marriage with the Dauphin, son of the French king Louis XIV

After the attempt to marry Sophie Charlotte with Louis of France had failed to dynastic plans whose father, Sophie Charlotte was conveyed to the Elector of Brandenburg House. On October 8, 1684, she married the widowed once already Elector Frederick of Brandenburg. Four years later died in the Great Elector and Frederick ascended with his wife, the electoral throne. The marriage was not happy; they had been closed for political reasons, which was in high aristocratic circles of the day. The Princess gave birth to Frederick I, three children, of whom only one son survived, later King Friedrich Wilhelm I.

She received in 1696 the estate Lietzow (also Lützow ) 1 km northwest ahead of Berlin and a piece of land near as compensation for their country seat in Caputh at Potsdam, she had returned to her husband and commissioned the architect Arnold Nehring to build a summer residence. When Arnold Nehring died a few months later, the architect Martin Gruenberg assumed the additional construction management. Under his direction, two südwärtsgerichtete buildings have been built for the operating rooms and the servants.

There, the Electress and later Queen lived relatively independent, her husband Frederick had only access when he was expressly invited, for example in the summer July 11, 1699, when they inaugurated the palace on the occasion of the birthday of the Elector solemnly. After that, the summer residence was the permanent residence of Sophie Charlotte. In 1700, the castle was expanded under Eosander of Goethe to a representative three-wing building.

Sophie Charlotte was an opponent of the policies of the Prime Minister Danckelmann, they retired to his overthrow in 1697, in which she had played a key role, to her castle Lietzenburg back because they politically could do nothing at the Berlin court. On January 18, 1701 she was crowned by her husband to the first Queen of Prussia.

On February 1, 1705, she died while visiting her mother in Hanover on a sore throat. Her body was transferred to Berlin, where the older Berliner Dom held the funeral and she was buried. Today, their final resting place is in the Hohenzollern crypt of the Berlin Cathedral at the Lustgarten in Berlin. After the death of the queen, the king left the property Lietzenburg rename in honor of his late wife in Charlottenburg. This step was primarily dynastic reasons, as Friedrich, in the absence of prominent ancestors and great deeds of the princes of Europe had to smile at Monarch, seek the kingship in 1701 acquired international recognition to know. He therefore relied on the dynastic tradition of the House of Hanover, by glorifying his wife after her death.

Sophie Charlotte is described as highly educated. She spoke fluent German, Italian, French and English. She drew well-known personalities of her time to her court to Lietzenburg, such as the philosopher Leibniz, whom she knew from her time at the Hanoverian court. Leibniz remained life her good friend and was a frequent guest in Lietzenburg. They conducted intensive philosophical disputations and campaigned together for the establishment of a scientific academy in Berlin, which was then also founded on July 11, 1700 by Friedrich.

Leibniz, Sophie Charlotte survived by eleven years after her death, wrote of her: " she wanted me to often have in their vicinity; I enjoyed often the talk of a princess whose spirit and humanity has ever surpassed by none [ ... ] The Queen had an incredible knowledge on remote areas and an extraordinary thirst for knowledge, and in our conversations she strove these to satisfy more and more, resulting in one day no less use to the public would grow if it had not snatched away by death. "

In addition, Sophie Charlotte was musically very educated. She played excellent harpsichord, sang and took care of the Italian opera at her court, whose performance is a separate opera house was built. The musicians Attilio Ariosti and Giovanni Battista Bononcini stood for years as Kapellmeister in their services and composed several operas.

In her birthplace Bad Iburg the Charlottensee is named after her. It was also the so-called race track around the lake, which is part of the federal highway 51, renamed in Charlottenburg ring. In Berlin -Charlottenburg there since 1957 named after her high school, Sophie- Charlotte High School.

Children from her marriage to King Frederick I.

• Friedrich August ( born October 6, 1685 † January 31, 1686 )
• Frederick William I ( born August 14, 1688 † May 31, 1740 )